XML Client Abstraction Layer

1. A system for designing software applications, the system comprising: a client abstraction layer for use in design time in developing a web-based software application, the web-based software application comprising one or more HTML pages, the client abstraction layer being an abstraction of a user interface for a software application, the client abstraction layer comprising: a definition layer, the definition layer defining XML that is permitted to be used in the system; a plurality of XML templates, the XML templates providing XML page descriptions as an abstraction of HTML pages at design time, the XML page descriptions being used to define layout information; an integration logic XSLT layer, said integration logic XSLT layer abstracting said plurality of XML templates, and comprising client specific logic and middleware specific logic, wherein: the client specific logic abstracts a client on which the web-based application will be used from the XML and the client specific logic comprises a client-side framework, said client-side framework providing object-oriented features to a client-side scripting language; and the middleware specific logic abstracts middleware on which the web-based application will be used from the XML; and an XML parser, the XML parser publishing applications for use during run time.

2. The system as in claim 1 , wherein said definition layer comprises an interface section, said interface section defining data containers to be sent to a web server.

3. The system as in claim 2 , wherein said interface section further defines screen-to-screen communications, parameters and GUI components.

4. The system as in claim 1 , wherein said definition layer comprises an event section, said event section handling application events.

5. The system as in claim 4 , wherein said event section is triggered by HTML events.

6. The system as in claim 4 , wherein said event section provides for the manipulation of GUI components.

7. The system as in claim 1 , wherein said definition layer comprises a view section, said view section defining a layout of an HTML page.

8. The system as in claim 7 , wherein said view section provides a plurality of views, said plurality of views being based upon a plurality of user profiles.

9. The system as in claim 7 , wherein said view section provides a plurality of layout types.

10. The system as in claim 7 , wherein said view section utilizes UI components.

11. The system as in claim 1 , wherein said client-side language is JavaScript or VBScript.

12. The system as in claim 1 , said client-side framework comprising a client-side object layer, the client-side object layer being a new language derived from the client-side language permitting the use of object-oriented techniques, the techniques including a declaration of a class, a declaration of an attributes or a method within the class, and instancing of an object according to the class declaration.

13. The system as in claim 1 , said client-side framework comprising an object pool layer, the object pool layer encapsulating a plurality of objects so that the objects have the same structure and the objects can intercommunicate.

14. The system as in claim 13 , said client-side framework comprising a application layer, the application layer comprising a web application using the objects in the object pool layer.

15. The system as in claim 1 , said client-side framework comprising a linking layer, the linking layer coupling a plurality of HTML objects on a one-to-one basis with a plurality of client-side language objects, so that the properties of the client-side language objects determine the behavior of the HTML objects.

16. The system as in claim 1 , said client-side framework comprising a communication layer, the communication layer allowing a plurality of objects to communicate with each other.

17. The system as in claim 1 , said client-side framework comprising a management layer, the management layer allowing client-side language objects to persist across a browser refresh.

18. The system as in claim 1 , said client-side framework comprising a pool-wide tool layer, the pool-wide tool layer comprising development support tools including a debugger.